one historian "caused more widespread popular resentment than any of the other secularist measures", [^41] remained in use till the Democrat Government repealed the law in June, 1950, as one of its first pieces of legislation. [^42]

[^41]:B. Lewis, Emergence of Modern Turkey. 416.

[^42]:Türkiye Tarihi, iv, 178.

All these 'revolutions' were carried out in the cause of secularism, one of the most important of the Kemalist principles. The meaning of this concept, laiklik, taken from the French, laicism, was and continues to be a subject of fierce debate. Suffice it to say here that during the twenty-five years of Republican People's Party (RPP) rule, its implementation was seen as the means of destroying most of the outward signs of the religion of Islam in Turkish life. It shall be discussed in greater detail in a subsequent chapter. Indeed, it was the alleged infringement of this principle that was used as the pretext for Bediuzzaman's arrest and imprisonment on a number of occasions.

In the early 1930's the RPP, the party Mustafa Kemal had founded, merged with the state, thereby gaining absolute control over it and its resources. Its six principles were written into the Turkish Constitution in 1937. Having obtained an absolute monopoly of power, the RPP embarked on a programme of mass education in the principles of the Kemalist Revolution. Opening thousands of People's Houses, People's Rooms, and later Village Institutes in every corner of the country, these were the means of instilling the six principles, particularly secularism and nationalism, and Western culture, into the Turkish people at grass roots level. The Qur'an and traditional Islamic culture were to go, everybody had to identify with the new order. Eyes had to be turned from the Islamic past to a Godless future. If they could not impose their atheistic principles on many of the people of mature years, the young and the generations of the future could be made to accept them. It is said that the underlying intention of these programmes was the eventual establishment of communism or socialism in Turkey.

Thus, the above is a brief description of the main course of the Kemalist revolutions, and prevailing atmosphere and conditions in Turkey during the twenty-five years of Bediuzzaman's exile, first in Barla and then in other places. And while it does not adequately express the tyranny, oppression, and injustice which accompanied these changes, it is hoped that as the story of Bediuzzaman's struggle in the face of them unfolds, the magnitude of that struggle and his success through the Risale-i Nur in overcoming these ill-conceived designs on the Qur'an and Islam will become clear.